For years the major mainstream news magazines including Newsweek have come out with controversial articles during the major Christian holidays of Christmas and Easter. Usually they would find ‘experts’ on both sides of the issue but lately most have featured diatribes that are slanted heavily against the teachings and beliefs of traditional Christianity.

Ironically in one of the last issues to be published in a hard copy, Newsweek has decided to come out against Christmas and the New Testament in general. The issue features an essay by agnostic New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman. Right away the title of the article gives you a major clue to the direction of the contents: “The Myths of Jesus”

Dr. Ehrman fortunately does believe that Jesus was actually a real historical figure but in the article he questions the accuracy of nearly everything the New Testament Gospels say about him including his birth.

What is really objectionable is the fact that no Christian scholar is given equal time to present the other side. Here’s an excellent article by Dr. R. Albert Mohler, (president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) that does just that:

Christianity stands or falls on the truth concerning Jesus, and thus it also stands or falls on the authority and truthfulness of the Bible. What you believe about historical truth defines what you believe about Jesus Christ. Without the revealed truths of the New Testament, there is no Christianity, just superstitions and fantasies about Jesus.

Interestingly, Bart Ehrman does believe that Jesus existed. In a recent book he debunks those who dismiss all claims about Christ as mere myth. He believes Jesus to have been a Jewish apocalyptic prophet, but not God incarnate in human flesh.

The cover article in the magazine, timed for maximum publicity at Christmas, was a premeditated act. Securing Bart Ehrman to write the essay set the course, and the cover art is intended to sell the magazine.

So, in the waning days of Newsweek as a print magazine, the editors decided to take on the New Testament. Readers should note carefully that it is Newsweek, and not the New Testament, that is going out of print.

So in the coming year the New Testament will still be available in print but not Newsweek? A fitting commentary on the relative importance of the two works. *Top